Evaluating the Aerodynamic Performance of MFC-Actuated Morphing Wings to Control a Small UAV

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The purpose of this research is to evaluate certain performance characteristics of a morphingwing system that uses Macro Fiber Composites (MFC) to create camber change. Thisthesis can be broken into two major sections. The first half compares a few current MFCairfoil designs to each other and to a conventional servomechanism (servo) airfoil. Theirperformance was measured in terms of lift and drag in a 2-D wind tunnel. The resultsshowed MFC airfoils were effective but limited by aeroelasticity compared to the servo. Inaddition, a morphed airfoil and a flapped airfoil were rapid prototyped and tested to isolatethe effects of discontinuity. The continuous morphed airfoil produced more lift with lessdrag.The second half of this thesis work focused on determining the ideal MFC configurations fora thin wing application. Simulations were run on a thin wing with embedded MFCs suchthat the whole wing morphed. Finite element and vortex lattice models were used to predictdeflections and rolling moment coefficients. Different configuration parameters were thenvaried to quantify their effect. The comparisons included MFC location, number of MFCs,material substrate, and wing thickness. A prototype wing was then built and flight tested.While the simulations overestimated the wing deflection, the flight results illustrated thecomplexity and variability associated with the MFC morphing system. The rolling momentcoefficients from flight were consistent with the simulation given the differences in deflection.